Breakfast Mega Amazeballs Takoyaki Style

Essentially an attempt to make stuffed pancake balls for breakfast.

But today was not the day.

I had purchased several cast-iron specialty pans for making Japanese takoyaki - fried batter balls containing pieces of octopus and served smothered with additional toppings like mayonnaise and dried bonito fish flakes. I had given these as gifts to budding cooks in the family (also an electric Hong Kong style bubble waffle maker). My niece has used the bubble waffle maker for scallion pancakes in addition to making the bubble cakes.

Takoyaki pans have half-sphere rounds in the pan where you can form the food into a ball shape.

I had watched so many travel foodie videos on takoyaki that I wanted to try to make them at home.

Since you can add any filling you like, why not adapt this for a breakfast treat?

I am from the school of making things as simple and as fast possible with the least amount of mess as possible.

I started out with a fresh box of pancake mix. I couldn't finish off the last giant box of mix from the wholesale club in time before it expired and adding some good baking powder to it couldn't save it. I added more water to the mix to thin it out.

I had some sausages that were pre-cooked and sliced up into small pieces that I could add to each ball.

You can also use pieces of chopped up cooked eggs, scrambled egg bits, crisped bacon bits, ham, s-pam, turkey, tofu....chopped up hash browns. veggies and for those across the pond, a smidge of beans, tomato pieces, banger bits, rasher pieces...

In traditional takoyaki, they add some fried tempura bits to add a crunchy bit texture to the mix. Here's a tip, throw in some crushed potato chips, some cereal pieces or other snack to add that snap, crackle and pop...or fiber.

Since my pan is new, it has not been used to the point where it is properly "seasoned" to be truly nonstick like a cast iron frying pan should be.

Grease the entire pan well and put over a low-medium heat.

Fill up the wells with the thinned pancake mix. Add the filling pieces to each of the wells. It's okay that the batter will overflow into the pan.

You have to be patient as the batter cooks.

This is the part where you have to know your fire and let it cook till you see steam rising off the pan. The batter will set and form part of the shell strong enough for you to lift and turn over so you can form a ball.

Takoyaki chefs use a set of metal picks to maneuver the balls but I thought I could get away with using a bamboo skewer and a fork and spoon. I was tempted to clean off my woodworking awl or go search for the lobster forks.

I was testing every once in a while if they were ready to be turned.

Once the batter starts setting up, you can start separating the balls and consolidate the mass to be turned in its well.

Start by scraping the batter away from the edges of the pan.

But...

The pancake batter stuck to my new takoyaki pan. Because the bottom of the pan is all connecting ribs between the wells, it did not heat up evenly on my gas stove.

And I forgot the wells are in rows that are offset. I tried to slice down between the rows but dragged through the wells in the center.

What resulted was a big doughy half cooked omelet waffle of sorts.

I eventually let it cook longer hoping to salvage the mess so as not to waste food. I poured on the rest of the pancake mix to fill in the wells hoping for a second chance to form a ball.

I had to invert it all in a frying pan to finish cooking off the top. I then plated them in a pool of maple syrup.

So anyone out there. Just do the traditional garbage waffle. Throw everything in a waffle maker and call it a day.

I'm thinking the egg and sugar in the pancake mix makes the batter extra sticky on the pan.

So the day I perfect my takoyaki cooking technique, it will be amazeballz!

Enjoy!